Exchanging Ukraine for Valley

The students and staff at North Hollywood High School are getting ready to put out the welcome mat for 10 Ukrainian exchange students, who will attend classes and sample local culture during a 2 1/2-week stay here beginning Oct. 15.

The visiting teenagers, all sophomores and juniors, will stay with the families of 10 North Hollywood High students who traveled to Ukraine last spring as part of the Washington, D.C.-based American Councils for International Education program.

The North Hollywood students spent nearly three weeks in the city of Rivne, where they attended foreign-language and other classes at their hosts’ high school. They also explored local cultural sites.

The Ukrainian students will shadow their American counterparts around the North Hollywood campus, sitting in on a variety of classes. Special courses have been created by the school’s teachers to introduce the visitors to American slang and popular culinary fare.

The visitors are scheduled to tour Disneyland, Universal Studios, the Getty Museum and the zoo. The teenagers also will cheer on the North Hollywood High Huskies at the Oct. 29 homecoming game against the Verdugo Hills High School Dons.

“We’re excited about the visit, because we’re trying to build a lasting partnership with the Ukrainians,” said Stacy Ordona, the North Hollywood High foreign-language teacher who accompanied the students to Rivne in March. “Both groups of kids get to talk about the teenage issues they’ll face in the 21st century.”

PROGRAM NOTES

Talent Spotlight: Southern California teens who excel in ballet, jazz and modern dance, voice, instrumental music and the visual arts are invited to apply for the 12th annual Music Center Spotlight Award program. The scholarship competition offers master classes taught by noted artists. Two finalists in each of the performing arts categories will compete before an audience of 3,200 in April. Winners receive $5,000 scholarships. The application deadline is Oct. 8, except for nonclassical voice class submissions, which are due Oct. 22. For information, call (213) 202-2245.

New Classes: Reseda High School, which offers a Police Academy Magnet and special programs in science and the humanities, has added a Gifted/Highly Gifted Academy for Advanced Studies to the list. The program, open to students who have already been identified as gifted, offers 20 advanced-placement classes, 11 honors classes and several college-level courses, including engineering and geology.

KUDOS

Essay Winner: Devan Jaganath, an eighth-grader at Hale Middle School in Woodland Hills, was recently named a state-level winner of the 1999 Arthur Ashe Essay Contest, sponsored by the USA National Junior Tennis League. Devan, 13, was among 160 young scribes nationwide to win trophies for their essays about the tennis great, an education advocate who died in 1993.

END NOTES

Reseda Community Adult School offers parenting skills classes Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to noon at Newcastle Avenue School in Reseda. Children get to sing, play and do art projects while their parents learn how to deal with issues such as sibling rivalry. For information, call (818) 343-1977 . . . Glendale Community College will host an Alumni Open House on Thursday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the auditorium foyer.

Class Notes appears every Wednesday. Send news about schools to the Valley Edition, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311. Or fax it to (818) 772-3338. Or e-mail them to diane.wedner@latimes.com.